WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins reported that prosecutors had offered to Policarpio Espinoza Perez and Adan Canela an offer of all jail time suspended but 40 years with the possibility of parole. The defendants refused the offer by noon.

A motions hearing is set for Jan. 7, and a trial date was set for March 11.

"He still maintains that he's innocent and wants to see this through another trial," Espinoza attorney Nick Panteloeakis said.

The children died May 27, 2004 after returning to from Cross Country Elementary School to their apartment in northwest Baltimore. The children's mother found their bodies, and a neighbor called 911.

"This case is not a slam dunk for the state, and there is one additional little factor: They didn't do it," Canela's attorney Brian Murphy said.

All three children were beaten and had their throats slashed so deeply that one was decapitated, and the other two were nearly decapitated.

The defendants quickly became suspects. Officials said they went to the crime scene to comfort relatives. The pair provided inconsistent statements regarding their whereabouts at the time of the crime.

The children and their family had fled New York to escape violence, moving to a first-floor apartment in the 7000 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore. At the time, the Mexican government identified Perez as the children's uncle and Canela as their cousin.

The gruesome nature of the victims' deaths left police shaken, and the case continues to make its way through the courts after a hung jury in 2005 and a tainted conviction in 2006.

In the summer of 2011, the Maryland Court of Appeals voted 4-3 in favor of a new trial for the pair. Judges in the majority based their decision on the error of the trial judge in 2006, saying the judge "deprived counsel of the opportunity to have input" into the court's response to the jury. Three dissenting judges noted defense attorneys saw the judge's error and didn't object.

Attorney's argued that, had they known, they could have changed their strategy.

"They didn't ask all the questions they would have asked had they known what the notes said," Murphy said.

The case is headed for a third trial and may be tough to prosecute as many of the relatives and witnesses have been deported or voluntarily left the country.

"One of the witnesses was murdered by his wife, who is another witness in the case," Panteloeakis said.

The defense has filed several motions to keep the proceedings fair, including excluding Espinoza's statements to police.

"It was the result of an illegal seizure," Panteloeakis said.

"Another motion that is common to both of us is the state wants to use some of the prior testimony of witnesses who are now, in their opinion, unavailable," Murphy said.

The 11 News I-Team reported in June 2011 that a motive in the killings was never clear.